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Good Guildy! How to be one

I have seen lots of blog posts about guild leadership, if you are looking for them start with Matt and keep going.

I have seen lots of posts about recruiting for your guild, or finding the right guild for you.

I have seen lots of posts about being a good class player, nearly every class blog has at least one of those.

I have seen lots of posts about being a good raid leader or raid member.

What I haven’t seen, at least many of, is a post about being a good guild member.

Good Guildy! How to be one

Picking the right guild.

The 1st step in being a good guild member is finding the right guild. In the right guild, with objectives that are aligned with yours, you will be off to a huge headstart at being a good guildy.

The old biblical saying of:

Do unto others as you would have them do into you

is much easier when you are all doing unto each other things that you want done unto you.

Account Safety

Authenticator

These days an authenticator is a prerequisite for playing in general, but it is essential if you are in a guild.

You have a couple of options for authenticators these days, and no excuses not to get one.

The only thing worse than having your account hacked and your toons stripped, is for the guild to be stripped as well!

Account sharing

While it’s within the ToS to share your account with a family member, nothing will put you on the outer with your guild quicker than your “little brother” or discontent partner screwing with the guild in your name.

Your toon name is your badge of honor. When someone smack talks guildies in your name, it is your name that is dishonored. When someone wipes the raid in your name, you are the annoying noob.

Don’t think that logging on the next day and apologizing will clear the air… After all, who is ever going to trust that it is you in the 1st place.

Guild Wealth

Guild bank

The guild bank is not your personal warehouse. It is a collection of mats and gear that is stockpiled through the generosity of your guild mates for the purpose of progressing the guild as a whole.

If you “need” something in the guild bank remember that some other kind soul sacrificed that item and their own profits to help the guild.

Ask before taking, and preferably offer a fair exchange for that item.

Remember that the guild bank doesn’t fill itself. So before you hock that Frostweave, BoE etc, that the better place for those goods might Be in the Guild bank. Sharing those mats or other items with a desperate toon will undoubtedly be worth more than the handful of coins in your own bank.

Made a killing on the AH?

Give some to the Guild Bank!

I remember checking our my guild bank one night after a raid. The vault was nearly empty and it occurred to me that our guild leader dropped 3 repair bots and other people shared heaps of pots around the raid. I couldn’t farm these things, but I could repay the guild for their efforts.

1,000 gold later (an insignificant amount for me back in TBC, in fact I felt a little guilty for depositing so little) and I had won the gratitude of numerous guild members. The GM was amazed, because hardly anyone contributed to the guild bank.

Loot

So that’s an upgrade for you? What, 1-20 DPS?

How about your guildy?

If it will do more for them, then it will mean more for them and ultimately the guilds progression.

Saying:

/pass: I pass, you go for it, you need it more!

are some of the sweetest words you will ever read during a loot roll.

Crafting

You can craft?

Ask not what your guild can do for you, rather what you can do for your guild.

If you made it, and are about to vendor or DE it, check in guild 1st.

If someone needs to utilize your crafting prowess, offer it free, you go to them, supply the mats if you can afford it.

If you farm, offer a bit around. Pixels of gold have less RL value than hearts of gold.

Your efforts will not go unnoticed!

BoEs

1) Your 10, 20, 300 gold BoE may have a higher value to someone in the guild that can use it, and I’m not talking monetary value.

2) If someone offers you a BoE, be aware they could have just AH’d it, so make sure you show your appreciation.

Mats
Got ’em, Give ’em!

One of the greatest gifts I got in TBC was mats towards my Spell* sets. I repaid in awesome DPS!

Presence

There are a few forms of presence that are important. After all, if you are not intending to provide some level of presence, why did you join the guild, you might as well have stayed solo.

Guild chat

Always say Hi & Bye… Simple nah?

Celebrate in guildy’s achievements, whether achievement achievements, dings, loot gains, kills, even real life achievements. Even when you are having one of those meh days, it’s easy to throw out a grats to two, and it is so nice being on the other end of those… remember?

Guild forum

The guild forums are there for a reason, well many reasons.

One of those reasons is to have a persistent source of information that is a tad bigger that the guild motd.

The other is to facilitate offline communication. It’s much easier to hit a forum during the day, than to fire up WoW.

Make sure you at least read them

Preferably acknowldge people’s thoughts and ideas.

Sign up for, or create your own events.

Guild forums are not official forums don’t be an arsehat or a troll, and definitely don’t be an arsehat-troll. Respect your online family!

Mental presence

When you are online and participating in a guild event, then be there physically and mentally. Join into the activities and the discussion. The event will only ever be as “alive” as you make it.

Availability

Not so much the % of your time you are online, but rather your availabilty when you are there.

Instances/support
I am taking more about instances and support. Ever spammed /LFG and guild chat trying to get a group going only to discover that your guildies that could run with you (and probably start up a group of their own and go to that instance you are begging to go to) don’t acknowledge you?

Don’t be that person. In particular, consider the lower level, or new to 80 toons. Leveling can be lonely and frustrating work. Gearing up at 80 can be a PITA if no one wants to run the instances holding the gear.

The more help you can provide to these people, the quicker you will have additional forces to work with (and guess who will be on their friends list!)

Maybe this is an opportunity for you to play your Alt for a change.

Tutoring
While helping guidies, remember to HELP guildies. If they are doing something that makes them a classtard, then the best person to help them is YOU!

The quicker they learn, the quicker they will become a fully functioning member of the guild, that you will be happy to raid with, and that will give your guild a good name with outsiders.

Guild Relations

Dissent

Leaders are only human, and humans make bad calls and can’t necessarily see the whole picture.

But just because they are (may be) wrong, doesn’t mean you can stir up a revolution.

Really, if you have a significant difference of opinion, there are two ways to approach the situation, and two outcomes even if you aren’t satisfied with the final decision.

Correct method:

Broach it with your leader(s) privately via whisper or leader channel if your concerns must be acknowledged immediately, or

Send them a private forum message to give them a chance to think through and discuss the concept with other leaders in a “safe” environment.

Wrong method:

Bring up your issues in guild, raid or god forbid general chat.

Make a public post on your forums.

Why so?
As much as your intentions may be honorable in putting something in the public arena, doing so opens up a few issues.

It sows a seed of discontent with other guild members, who will start to second guess the end result, and doubt the leadership if there is any delay in a response.

In opening it up tithe general populace, you then open it to a cascade of divergent views, many of which won’t actually be directly on topic and this will obscure the real question and make it difficult for a succinct response.

It puts the leaders on the back foot, and no one likes to be broadsided.

I know in my guild leadership days, it could take hours, even days for all the relevant leaders to find out about the issue and work out a solution. GL’s have lives too, and sometimes WoW comes 2nd, or 3rd or…

When someone made a drama post, it was very difficult to mend fences and keep the discussion on the right path.

Give them a chance to get back to you, and the rest of the guild if necessary, with an appropriate response.

Don’t like the decision?

If you can live with it, buckle down and get on with the job. You were heard, but you can’t always get what you want.

If you can’t live with it, offer up a departure notice and leave the guild. Don’t ever bad mouth the guild publicly or privately. Doing so will convince people something is rotten, when in fact you alone aren’t happy.

New ideas

You’ve got them, so share them. As much as GL’s get inundated by whispers, constantly, they always appreciate new ideas and feedback.

When you have them, you need to share them, otherwise there is the danger that you will become disillusioned with the game.

Let the GLs know you are there and thinking about ways to improve the guild. Just do it privately at 1st so they get a chance to give you a considered response.

Use the calander

No one ever seems to want to run the same instances as you?

Probably not true, but maybe you need to give some advanced warning.

Don’t leave the events calender empty, fill it and watch the sign ups roll in (and the subsequent invites).

Support activities

Keeping the guild motivated can be hard at times, especially during school breaks etc.

When the GL’s post a silly event it’s not only for their own pleasure. There’s a good chance they are as excited about it as you.

But there are good intentions behind it, and there’s a good chance that the idea has come from another guildy.

Two things to remember:

Doing the silly event will be good for the guild. 1 person turning up = bad, 2 people = better. The more the merrier.

You will most likely have a hoot. If you read blogs, or listen to podcasts about silly events, they always end up being a blast… If people show up.

/gquit

There comes a time in most peoples WoW lives where the guild no longer fits your own needs.

This is OK, but it’s now time to /gquit

Talk before /gchat

Logging on at 3am and stealth /gquit is not usually the best way to do it.

Every /gquit no matter what the reasons leaves people wondering about the health of the guild. Unexplained ones just add to the drama.

Talk to at least one GL about your intentions privately. Equip them to field questions about your departure, or identify future issues (maybe even correct) in the guild.

Talk about you reasons in /gchat. Let people understand your positive reasons for leaving, and give them the chance to say farewell.

Post a farewell message in your guild forums for all those that weren’t online at the time.

No gossip

You left the guild because it was no longer the best for for you.

Don’t bad mouth it, or gossip about it to guild strangers, and especially to former guildies.

In Real Life

If you have never conducted a job interview, you may not realize that a big turnoff is applicants that bag out their previous employers.

Same thing goes with guilds.

This is the stuff that epic drama lama forums are made of. In the end no one comes out looking good, least of all the person that initiated the drama.

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15 Responses

Regarding silly events – it can make people feel really bad if you are online and refuse to attend, especially if you are the ONLY one that doesn’t go.

I host lots of silly events. They are fun, they give people a break from the usual “grind” (whatever it may be), and they reconnect everyone on the social level.

Omg using guild forms is a huge thing. At least read them.

What I would add… about helping others (with their class or profession or whatever) is to provide resources and honestly HELP. Giving someone all the answers all the time might seem helpful, but in fact, is not. What shall that person do if you aren’t there? Give some answers and let them know where to find it. Just like running a brand new player thru every instance with yer uberleet 80 is not going to help them to learn how to group and run instances.

Secondly…Awesome post, I really can’t add to much to it. I’m not huge on the Authenticator though, smacks of nazism..I just prefer to use it.

The only thing I would add is maybe Ventrilo, or Teamspeak. Speaking to your guildies via voice really builds a connection beyond the chat channel.

Plus during raids some of my most fun moments was something goofy said over Vent. Like back in the BWL days we were killing NEF, and a pally was dead, and he just kept yelling…”Go Team Go!’…We all think he was drunk. Stuff like that.

An excellent post as usual! I recently just posted in my blog about being concerned about the level of discretion used in guild chat. Someone was sharing what I considered too much personal business for guild chat. I wasn’t really sure how to react because while I would never be comfortable enough to share intimate personal things online with strangers, especially in a guild chat setting, I didn’t know if someone is comfortable with it themselves, if that makes it okay.

Anyways, again, great post, it all seems common sense to me, but then again, as someone else stated, common sense is sometimes not all that common.

@Sythe: I think common sense decreases with education sometimes…
Prerequisite is probably a bit strong of a word, but I must admit, that although all my other habits are good, when the iPhone authenticator came on the market, I was there 10 minutes later to download it.

These days with the variety of scams out there, it is all to easy to have a “blonde” moment, especially at 3am as I am logging off on a Saturday morning.

@Cathy: Agreed, officers need to be a guiding force… after all, that is a part of what being a good guild leader is, ut even the most conscious player can start to become jaded with the guild, then it becomes “catch 22″.. they don’t “help” me, so why should I “help” them.

I think if you have full access to a guild bank (or are a leader of a guild) you have a certain responsibility to protect your account in anyway possible. Even with limited access to the GBank, the loss of your character will be demoralizing… will you desert the game and your “dependents” if your account is hacked?

@theerivs: Always happy to pimp good looking blogs!
I agree about Vent… it isn’t for only for raids, and if your guild vent/TS has the capacity to allow a general “lounge” then it’s fantastic. Of course for raids it’s just essential.

@Arioch: Charging Guildies for trade skills is like charging raid members for drops… it’s stupid and doesn’t progress the guild.

@Zaralin: Feel free to link!
Rules… rules can ruin guilds… sure they are necessary, but it’s like real life litigation… once you have rules, you need rules to cover the rules and when the $h1t hits the fan, the rules just seem to make the whole thing worse. Yet guidelines always seem to be ignored. We can always hope though…

@Troutwort: People’s difference in personal boundaries is a hard one. My wife is from a culture where many Australian “habits” are just quite offensive (as I am constantly reminded). Needless to say, I feel the same about some of her’s. Still, there is nothing worse that being in the room next to two passionate people, when the walls are paper thin…